Getxo - What to do - The big villas promenade

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What to do

The big villas promenade - Autoguided tour

A stroll past the Great Mansions is a chance for you to discover some of the most iconic buildings in Getxo's palatial architecture, built during the neighbourhood of Las Arenas’s halcyon days, between the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th.

It is a self-guided tour involving 29 information panels that will help you to understand the architectural styles that prevailed at that time: eclecticism, traditional English architecture and regionalism, as well as its most renowned architects, the contemporary social context, etc.

A pleasant walk along the seafront, the Muelle de Las Arenas and Muelle de Arriluze, taking you back to Getxo’s golden years.

Most of the outstanding architects in Bizkaia from around the end of the 19^th century and the first third of the 20^th designed buildings in Getxo.

One of the foremost exponents of the first period, prior to 1900, and stylistically linked to eclecticism, is Severino Achúcarro. Alongside him there are a number of other illustrious names, such as Federico Borda and José María Basterra, or the local architects Francisco Ciriaco Menchaca and José Bilbao Lopategui.

From 1900 onwards, new generations of architects began to express themselves in the British and regionalist styles that were the height of fashion in those days. The most famous of them all is undoubtedly Manuel María Smith, the leading advocate of residential buildings for the gentry of the time, and you will be able to admire several buildings by him during A Stroll Past the Great Mansions.

Other famous names are Rafael de Garamendi, Fidel Iturria, Emiliano Amann, Ricardo Bastida and Ignacio María Smith, amongst others, and buildings by a good few of these can be seen on this walk.